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Friday, October 8, 2010

I don't normally travel down under for work but last week, a rare issue came up and I had to make my first ever trip to Sydney. It was a 2 day work trip but I took the opportunity to stay on for 2 more days on my own. As for most trips I make nowadays, I have ceased to be ambitious and stopped bothering with pre-trip research. There was only one thing I knew I wanted to do and that was visiting the Donna Hay general store. I had first read about it at Not Quite Nigella's blog and had been quite fascinated by it ever since... and who wouldn't? Having been captivated month after month by the bright and breezy pages of the Donna Hay magazines,I knew I simply couldn't miss the one and only Donna Hay General Store on this planet.

Nestled in a trendy residential district, it is definitely outside the main tourist belt. I took more than an hour getting there from City Center by train,bus and alot of walking. However, I really didn't mind, I loved wondering in the suburbs,feeling the local pulse. Situated away even from the main commercial section of the suburb, this was an unlikely location for a store which in my opinion,makes this boutique store even more charming.

I was able to recognise styling props used in Donna Hay's beautiful photos among the merchandises. It wasn't a big store and the price tag was not exactly pocket-friendly but still that didn't stop me for lingering there for over an hour and leaving with a bunch of merchandises. The biggest draw has to be the chic and colourful cupcake/muffin liners. Unique in design, these are more expensive than your usual liners but not unreasonably exorbitant.

Then there were the ceramics and cake stands that came with clean lines and neutral pastel colours that are so Donna Hay.

To celebrate my purchase at Donna Hay, I decided to make the Donna Hay Double Chocolate Cake which I had first seen at Evan's blog. I had dreamt of creating the photos with the same fresh and luminous aura that is the signature of Donna Hay's magazines but shooting the cupcakes at night was tricky and I would have to admit that I haven't done justice to Donna Hay's beautiful cupcake liners.

The cake is absolutely delicious - fiercely chocolatey without being overly rich. It went really well with the fluffy Swiss Meringue Butter cream frosting- This is definitely a cake that does not require fancy liners to shine, I hope you get to try it too.

Cupcake
1. In a bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together
2. In a mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar until pale and creamy.
3. Add egg one at a time and continue to mix until homogenous.
4. Add Vanilla extract.
5. Add flour and . Alternate with milk addition. Drizzle in melted chocolate and mix well.
6. Scoop into paper liners and bake in a 160C pre-heated oven and bake for 20mins.
7. Cool down cupcakes completely and frost the cupcake using butter cream below.

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream:
1. Place egg white and sugar in a mixing bowl. Place this over a simmering water bath and whisk with a hand whisk until sugar dissolves.
2. Transfer egg white into a mixing bowl and whisk with a bubble whisk , until peaks are firm but fluffy.
Add butter, one spoonful at a time. Change over to a paddle fixture and contiue to beat the butter cream to remove bubbles. At this point, you can add your flavourings or colours. For this, I added a few drops of pink colouring.

51 comments:

Gorgeous photographs and BEAUTIFUL cupcake! I was thinking of making something pink dedicating a post to October breast cancer awareness and this frosting looks pretty and pink :-)I would see if I can replicate this recipe (only if its OK with you)But I had a question that how did you give the frosting a pink color since I don't see any coloring in your ingredients?

Prerna, my apologies... I was dozing off when I was typing out the recipe. I added a few drops of pink coloring to the butter cream. Please do try this out, I thought the contrast of the pink color with the dark chocolate turned out well....

You took the cupcake photos at night? I would not have been able to tell! I do love the pink frosting with the dark chocolate as you said above. I must go to this store this weekend! It was lovely meeting you Shirley!

So pretty in pink! Envy envy... I wish I can visit Donna Hay's store. I have 2 of her cookbooks and always enjoy reading them because her pictures are always so attractive. Love the cupcake liners...will try the chocolate cupcake one of these days. :)

These cupcakes are gorgeous! The pink and brown combination are so pretty, and the liners complement them perfectly! I'm so tempted to head to Sydney to the Donna Hay store now. I love their style of photos and food styling too. And I think you did a great job!

Hi Zurin, I use a small table top white light for my night photos. It is getting very difficult for me to work during the day.... so I need to find options for night photography. I still find it very difficult to control the lighting effect with the lamp though - sometimes it works, sometimes, it doesn't... :(

You certainly did justice to the liners, and you even get extra brownie points for taking such excellent night shots. Wow, they allowed photography in-store? I would go crazy looking at so many pretty things, all in one place. Where to start???

I've never been to the Donna Hay store, eventhough I live in Sydney! haha....I'll definitely have to visit one day!! I don't know if I'd ever want to use the cupcake liners though- they're so pretty! These cupcakes are really pretty too!!

I am so jealous! I've been dreaming about visiting that store, but will probably not be able to for years until I finally take my dreamt-of vacation to Australia. Love the liner and the great cupcakes you made in them. I should give that recipe a try.

thx for mentioning me in yr entry shirley. your cupcakes look great, in fact better than mine, and i think pink frosting is prettier coz of the contrast (i'm a sucker for anything pink/brown or baby blue/brown) and the liner is so retro yet modern! and so envy you always get to travel. i've always been wanting to go to donna hay general store tho' i know their stuff are very overpriced. right now can only ogle at some products at jones the grocer :(

Evan, your cakes always have a touch of finesse that I don't think I can ever achieve. I think Donna Hay store is going to offer on-line shopping facilities soon. If you don't get to Sydney sooner, you can look forward to shopping on line :) Actually,Sydney is crazy expensive and I have not seen alot of varieties yet when it comes to shopping(unlike US/Europe)...I did get to go to a Jones Grocery store there but, there is no kick anymore because I've seen most of the stuff here....

What are you talking about? You totally did the cupcake papers justice shirley! The cupcakes are so beautiful! As are the pictures =)

I'm so so jealous. I've been wanting to go to the Donna Hay store for ages but as you described so well, it's so out of the way! I must make that trip some day...

Oh and I'm glad you bought the liners and not the pre-packed cupcake mix. I bought a box of the mix (which also comes with the liners) from Jones and oh my goodness the cupcakes were shockingly sweet. I couldn't stomach them. I'm sure your cupcakes were a zillion times better!

thats alot of good stuff in the shop. Sounds like a very enjoyable trip. I can perfectly understand why you stayed in the shop for more than an hour. I will do the same too.

The cupcakes look lovely and the pink buttercream shines out in a nice contrast.

I think its supposed to be Swiss meringue buttercream as opposed to French. Swiss meringue buttercream is done over a double boiler while French Meringue buttercream uses sugar syrup (similar to Italian buttercream)

ZY, you are right, I rechecked the Martha Stewart book which I got the recipe - it is Swiss Meringue buttercream indeed. This post is terrible, I made quite a few mistakes with the recipe...I was typing in bed and literally dozed off for a few minutes before waking up again...

This is the kind of store where I would really throw money at... Just to have those beautiful cupcake liners and that gorgeous ornate wire cooling rack. I wouldn't even bake anything (me being too impatient with measuring), but I'd love to have it hanging on my wall, looking pretty till I use it (like in that photo)!

These are so gorgeous, Shirley. Looks like it's straight out of a magazine :) I'm gonna have to try your recipe. Thanks for sharing. By the way, which tip # did you use for the frosting? The swirls turned out really nice and defined.

This is another post lovely photos!!! I love them all. I cannot believe how beautiful your photos of cupcakes turned out even though you took them at night. I would love to learn the tricks you had to make them look like they were taken with the daylight. Chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting is my girls' favorite and I made them for their birthdays last month! Kaho

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